Well today I have been in Kona 2 weeks! Hard to believe that the time has passed so quickly! Hannah arrived a week ago and Tania 5 days ago so we are now 3 and it feels good to have my friends around me!
Unfortunately our plans to hire a car here for 2 weeks fell flat on there face within an hour of Hannah stepping off the plane! We went to pick up the car from the rental place and discovered that the price we had 'paid' was subject to some additional local charges..... which totalled over $1000 US dollars!! Needless to say we decided that was a little over our budget and cancelled the car hire! Instead we found a local car hire company in town and rented a car for a weekend so that we could use it as a support vehicle for my epic cycle to the top of the Ironman course on Saturday and then use it to explore the Volcano National Park on Sunday. We have booked in another rental period for 24 hours at the end of the week so I can be dropped at the top of the cycle course for my final 'long ride' before race day. Not having a car during race week will make it a little harder to get to all the places I need to be like the bike shop for a pre-race service, event registration, the parade of nations, the athlete briefing and the all important race start but hopefully we will all figure out the best plan of attack to get me to each of those!
So Saturday was the big training event of the week for me - getting to the top of the cycle course and the big crew event of the week for Tania and Hannah who were manning the support vehicle (attached pic of Tania at a check point!). Friday evening was spent planning the various check points along the route, working out what I needed to be handed at each and also featured a quick lesson in making up my electrolyte drinks! I set off just after 7am and the first check point was scheduled for 0830! I picked a great day to cycle - the heat intensity was high and the Island winds were the strongest I had seen so I got a real taste of the legendary Ho'omumuku headwinds which blast at you from just north of the airport (10 miles out of Kona) all the way to the turn around at Hawi (mile 55) - I have to say that there were a few moments of despair as at times I felt like I was making little if any progress in a forwards direction (I have attached a video Hannah made on the side of the Queen K highway so you can hear the winds)! Just 10 miles out from Hawi I cycled into a belt of lashing rain - Hawi is situated at the very Northern tip of the Big Island and I have since learnt has a more tropical rainy climate - so I arrived at the turn around soaking wet and was greeted by an equally wet support crew! I didn't stay wet for long - 10 miles out of Hawi I hit the familiar intense heat and was blown dry in no more than 2 minutes! The top of the cycle course brings you right to the edge of the coastline and features much steeper sharper ascents so it felt good to finally see what I would be up against on race day! I certainly couldn't have made it up there without my support crew keeping me in a constant supply of electrolyte drinks and water! I managed to drink my way through just over 9 litres of water and arrived back at the condo only one kg lighter which I was really impressed with! I ran 40 minutes off the bike and felt good so all in all the day was a big confidence booster..... I had made it to the top and survived the heat and the winds! Below is a map and course profile for the cycle course.
Unfortunately our plans to hire a car here for 2 weeks fell flat on there face within an hour of Hannah stepping off the plane! We went to pick up the car from the rental place and discovered that the price we had 'paid' was subject to some additional local charges..... which totalled over $1000 US dollars!! Needless to say we decided that was a little over our budget and cancelled the car hire! Instead we found a local car hire company in town and rented a car for a weekend so that we could use it as a support vehicle for my epic cycle to the top of the Ironman course on Saturday and then use it to explore the Volcano National Park on Sunday. We have booked in another rental period for 24 hours at the end of the week so I can be dropped at the top of the cycle course for my final 'long ride' before race day. Not having a car during race week will make it a little harder to get to all the places I need to be like the bike shop for a pre-race service, event registration, the parade of nations, the athlete briefing and the all important race start but hopefully we will all figure out the best plan of attack to get me to each of those!
So Saturday was the big training event of the week for me - getting to the top of the cycle course and the big crew event of the week for Tania and Hannah who were manning the support vehicle (attached pic of Tania at a check point!). Friday evening was spent planning the various check points along the route, working out what I needed to be handed at each and also featured a quick lesson in making up my electrolyte drinks! I set off just after 7am and the first check point was scheduled for 0830! I picked a great day to cycle - the heat intensity was high and the Island winds were the strongest I had seen so I got a real taste of the legendary Ho'omumuku headwinds which blast at you from just north of the airport (10 miles out of Kona) all the way to the turn around at Hawi (mile 55) - I have to say that there were a few moments of despair as at times I felt like I was making little if any progress in a forwards direction (I have attached a video Hannah made on the side of the Queen K highway so you can hear the winds)! Just 10 miles out from Hawi I cycled into a belt of lashing rain - Hawi is situated at the very Northern tip of the Big Island and I have since learnt has a more tropical rainy climate - so I arrived at the turn around soaking wet and was greeted by an equally wet support crew! I didn't stay wet for long - 10 miles out of Hawi I hit the familiar intense heat and was blown dry in no more than 2 minutes! The top of the cycle course brings you right to the edge of the coastline and features much steeper sharper ascents so it felt good to finally see what I would be up against on race day! I certainly couldn't have made it up there without my support crew keeping me in a constant supply of electrolyte drinks and water! I managed to drink my way through just over 9 litres of water and arrived back at the condo only one kg lighter which I was really impressed with! I ran 40 minutes off the bike and felt good so all in all the day was a big confidence booster..... I had made it to the top and survived the heat and the winds! Below is a map and course profile for the cycle course.
Yesterday I got really excited because I spotted that the second part of the swim course had been marked with a couple of orange buoys! Today I had planned to swim the entire course however all the beaches and local water access points have been closed because the swells and currents are dangerously high following the Tsunami in Samoa and the Big Island is now on full scale alert for a Tsunami hit - some of the locals say the water should be open again by tomorrow so hopefully the buoys won't have been swept away!
This week sees a dip in the volume and intensity of my training so I feel that the taper has finally begun towards race day. I still have between 2 and 3 sessions a day but they are mostly shorter in length and at a much lower intensity. I am maximising my rest periods and taking advantage of a few more sleep ins! I finished my race plan this morning so have sent that to Tony this morning for feedback and comments!
This week sees a dip in the volume and intensity of my training so I feel that the taper has finally begun towards race day. I still have between 2 and 3 sessions a day but they are mostly shorter in length and at a much lower intensity. I am maximising my rest periods and taking advantage of a few more sleep ins! I finished my race plan this morning so have sent that to Tony this morning for feedback and comments!
Generally I am feeling good and looking forward to the excitement of race week Hawaii style! The rest of my crew arrive next week so it will be great to see Kathryn, Noo, Elaine, Mags and Kati! We have recruited a couple of locals to the kiwi support crew and hope to get as many Americans holding kiwi flags out on the course as possible :-)
That's it for now! xx
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